VOC Profile of Endophytic Fungi Is Altered by Nature of Lignocellulosic Biomass Feedstock.

摘要

Biofuel production from cellulosic feedstocks is a grand challenge that is being pursued on a number of fronts. One promising area is engineering of organisms that can directly convert biomass into more technologically useful forms. The technologies for next generation biofuels must not only design efficient processes to convert lignocellulosic biomass to liquid fuels but must also ensure that produced fuels are compatible with current and future engines. Endophytic fungi have been shown to produce a range of moderate-molecular weight hydrocarbons (volatile organic compounds-VOC) directly from cellulosic biomass without any pretreatment. These organisms have the capacity to alter their VOC profile as a function of carbon source. We cultured a number of these fungi on potential biofuel biomass (corn stove, eucalyptus and switchgrass) as the sole carbon source and their growth rates were compared to potato dextrose agar. We then performed a VOC profile of the biomass-supported fungal cultures. Our findings are an important first step in developing industrial hosts (microbes or fungi) with both biomass deconstruction and fuel synthesis pathways. Follow-up genomic and proteomics are needed to link genomics based information to function which will allow us to identify and understand response thresholds and determine how populations can be controlled for more sustainable out comes.